Monthly Archives: October 2016

PrEP is only approved and widely available in a few countries around the world, but people are finding ways to access it on their own. The “PrEP in the Wild” survey is trying to learn more about people’s experiences around the world. The survey is still open, but some preliminary results were presented at the HIV Research for Prevention conference in Chicago earlier this week. Aidsmap has a report:

An increasing number of gay men and others at risk of HIV are seeking to protect their health with PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), but the lack of PrEP provision and lack of regulatory approval in many countries is leading people to take PrEP without medical supervision and on an ad-hoc basis. This will undermine the safety and effectiveness of PrEP, Jerome Galea said as he presented results of the PrEP in the Wild survey to the HIV Research for Prevention (HIVR4P 2016) conference in Chicago yesterday.

“The official authorities are playing catch up and failing in their duty to protect public health,” commented the authors of a separate report on PrEP Access in Europe.

Have you used PrEP ‘in the wild’? We’d love to hear from you! If you’d be willing to share your story please get in touch with us.

You can reach us with a message to our Facebook page, or by email at act.up.dublin@gmail.com. We’ll keep your details private and will not make any identifying information public.

We’re excited to be hosting “PrEP: the pill that can prevent HIV”, a community forum about pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV (PrEP) on Thursday, November 10th, at the Cobblestone in Smithfield. The event will run from 7 to 9pm, with doors opening at 6:30. The event is free and open to anyone who is interested in learning more about PrEP.

The evening will begin with brief presentations on PrEP, followed by an open discussion. Attendees can ask questions and learn more about how PrEP works, what the obstacles to getting access here are, and how they can get involved in making it available in Ireland.

We’re very fortunate to have Dr. Paddy Mallon to present on the science behind PrEP and to talk about the medical aspects of this new HIV prevention method. As well as being a consultant working in HIV care, Dr. Mallon is head of the internationally-recognised HIV Molecular Research Group at UCD. His research has covered a range of HIV-related areas including long-term effects of antiretroviral treatment and expanding access to HIV testing.

We’ll be posting additional information over the next few weeks here and on the Facebook event page. We encourage people to submit questions or let us know about specific issues that they’d like to know more about either through our Facebook page or by email at act.up.dublin@gmail.com.

Our next regular meeting will be this coming Tuesday, October 4th. Usual time and place: 6:30pm in HIV Ireland’s offices at 70 Eccles Street, Dublin 7 (across the street from the Mater Private hospital).

We’ve got several projects underway that we’d love help with, and are always open to new ideas and proposals. Come on down and join us!